McCarthy Announces Move To Censure Waters Amid GOPers’ Faux Outrage

US House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Republican from California, holds his weekly press conference in Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on May 28, 2020. (Photo by Nicholas Kamm / AFP) (Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP vi... US House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Republican from California, holds his weekly press conference in Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on May 28, 2020. (Photo by Nicholas Kamm / AFP) (Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Breitbart News on Monday that he plans to introduce a resolution to censure Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA,) following his threat to take action against the House Financial Services chair over her remarks urging protesters against police brutality to “get more confrontational.”

In a statement shared with Breitbart News, McCarthy once again accuses Waters of having “incited violence” and breaking “the law by violating curfew” when issuing her remarks to reporters on Saturday during a protest against the killing of Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.

“This weekend in Minnesota, Maxine Waters broke the law by violating curfew and then incited violence. Increased unrest has already led to violence against law enforcement and her comments intentionally poured fuel on the fire,” McCarthy said in his statement, according to Breitbart News.

McCarthy, predictably, goes on to hammer into Republicans’ performative outrage by making the rich assertion that Waters has not been held accountable for her “violent rhetoric.”

“We’ve heard this type of violent rhetoric from Waters before, and the United States Congress must clearly and without reservation reprimand this behavior before more people get hurt,” McCarthy said, according to Breitbart News.

McCarthy proceeds to throw House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) under the bus by saying that she is “ignoring Waters’ behavior.”

“That’s why I am introducing a resolution to censure Rep. Waters for these dangerous comments, and I hope that all my colleagues – both Republican and Democrat – will stand up for peace on America’s streets,” McCarthy said, according to Breitbart News.

A day after Waters issued her remarks in Minnesota, McCarthy accused Waters of “inciting violence in Minneapolis” and demanded that Pelosi punish the Democrat.

In addition to Reps. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) and Madison Cawthorne (R-NC) backing McCarthy’s threat, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) pledged to introduce a resolution to have Waters expelled. Greene’s committee assignments were revoked after social media posts musing about the execution of her Democratic colleagues resurfaced.

Pelosi issued a strong defense of Waters later Monday, telling reporters that Waters shouldn’t feel obligated to apologize over her remarks. Pelosi also denied that Waters’ comments incited violence, and that Waters was talking about “confrontation in the manner of the Civil Rights movement.”

Pelosi’s defense of Waters was issued shortly after Waters herself pushed back against her GOP colleagues’ who claimed that her comments on Saturday could incite violence in an interview with the Grio.

Waters dismissed GOP outrage over her remarks, telling the Grio that “Republicans will jump on any word, any line and try to make it fit their message and their cause for denouncing us and denying us, basically calling us violent.”

“I am not worried that they’re going to continue to distort what I say,” Waters told the Grio. “This is who they are and this is how they act. And I’m not going to be bullied by them.”

In their bogus outrage over Waters’ recent remarks, Republicans have failed to acknowledge that they spent months peddling former President Trump’s baseless claims of widespread election fraud — which culminated in the deadly Capitol insurrection that Trump incited.

Latest News
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: